Two days later, at noon, representatives of several grain merchants in Shanghai were finally allowed by the special high school to visit the 12 arrested people in their cells. After half an hour of brief communication, they ran out with their noses covered, and two of them even threw up.

Then the three of them came to Marat's villa to find Chen Mingxiang, this time the dollars and gold bars sent were several times more than the last time, they had already heard the warning of the special high class, if they delayed any longer, they would have to go to the prison to gnaw and drink cold water.

"Director Chen, you are also a businessman, no matter what kind of request it is, we can all sit down and talk slowly, I hope you can do a favor first, and release the colleagues in prison first, the environment is too bad, these people have stomach troubles, and it is difficult to even walk!" The grain merchant surnamed Liu said with a wry smile.

Speaking of which, Chen Mingxiang is also a member of the grain merchants, he is also in the grain business, and has his own rice shop in Shanghai. It's just that Fenghua Company's main suppliers are the Gendarmerie Command and the Marine Corps Command, and they rarely deal with the common people.

"I can find a way to get people out of the hands of the special high school, but only one night, let them go home and take a shower and change their clothes, and then come to my house for dinner. To tell you the truth, if they don't reach an agreement tonight, they will have to go back to their cells, and I guess the three of you will go in tomorrow too. ”

"I believe you have already received the news, starting from June, the power of food rationing in Shanghai will be transferred to the hands of the Ministry of Food of the Jinling Government, and you still need to contribute to the procurement and rationing, if it were not for this reason, it would have been done to you a long time ago."

"Since you are all doing business, I also understand your current mood, you can earn 10,000 yuan less per ton, and I am also reluctant to do it. But in the case of a lack of food sources, you big families can only be grieved, which is also a last resort. ”

"You and I both know that the price of grain in Shanghai will definitely only rise, and more than half of the output in the rice-producing areas of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui will be used as military rations for the Japanese, and there are very few who can support the Shanghai market, so sooner or later, when the losses are recovered, the qualification for admission is the most important."

"The impact of this general strike was so bad that almost all the industries of most Japanese businessmen in Shanghai were suspended, and the production of military supplies for the Japanese army was seriously hindered, which touched the nerves of the Japanese.

"In such a situation, neither you are in the background of the Jinling government, nor I have no way to help you, and I can't send any amount of money. Cooperate with the problem of alleviating the food shortage for a period of time and stabilizing the order of the Shanghai market, which is your biggest way out. Chen Mingxiang said.

At a time when the Shanghai market is in such an existential crisis, these speculators are still wantonly hoarding and colluding with corrupt officials to raise grain prices, which is simply eating the flesh of the common people and drinking the blood of the common people.

However, in the face of huge interests, a new group of people will not necessarily be much better than this group of people, and without strong government constraints, substantive problems will never be resolved.

Besides, in the Guotong area ruled by the Shancheng government, it is not uncommon for speculators like this to be seen, and the famous Minister Kong's family are all masters of speculation, what can he do?

"Director Chen, we don't dare to hide it from you, the 30,000 tons of rice that the Japanese Navy wanted, more than 20 businessmen can barely make up it, but we really can't get together the 36,000 tons of rice that can be given to the city government, which is measured in 10,000 tons." The grain merchant surnamed Han said.

The sky-high price is landed to repay the money, and the grain merchants are definitely not willing to lose so many profits, and they can't do loss-making transactions, even if they are facing prison, they have to grit their teeth to recover some losses.

The food that the navy wants cannot be discounted, because this is the Japanese, and they are deadly devils, but the food of the common people has room for bargaining!

"It's all about trading, why are you so stupid, if you don't have enough rice, you can supplement it with coarse grains, as long as it's grain, I don't care if it's rice or stick noodles, people are going to starve to death, is coarse grain and fine grain important?"

"20,000 tons of coarse grain rice, 16,000 tons of broken rice, this matter is over, we all know it in our hearts if we can't make it up, if you don't believe it, turn it out and dry it, if you don't make it up by myself, do you dare?" Chen Mingxiang said lightly.

The grain in the hands of these speculators is definitely more than they need, because the speculation in this industry is playing with quantity, but Chen Mingxiang estimates that no matter how much it is, it will not be much, and the cost of hoarding these grains alone is an astronomical amount.

It's not that he is soft-hearted, the dog will jump the wall when he is in a hurry, and the rabbit will bite when he is in a hurry, Chen Mingxiang doesn't want to force the grain merchants to be anxious, and pull the hatred to this point, that is the failure of the strategic agent, he wants to be a good person, but the bottom line is that the amount of grain cannot be reduced.

Probably because he was born and lived in the north for a period of time, Chen Mingxiang is not averse to coarse grains, eating wowotou, or wowotou with stick noodles mixed with bean noodles, which is also called a thing? People are going to starve to death, and they don't care about coarse grains and fine grains, even if it's such coarse grains, it is estimated that they won't last long.

And as an agent of the Military Administration, he always keeps one thing in mind, as long as he can survive, then there is hope for everything, and survival is the most important thing, and the general environment is like this.

"Director Chen, the food shortage problem in Shanghai is not simply caused by our speculation, who is the reason for it, I am afraid you know better than anyone else, now that we are forced to pay such a big price, we have to give us a little corresponding return, right?" The grain merchant surnamed Liu asked.

The arms can't reach the thighs, and the speculators have to agree to this transaction in the face of a dangerous situation, but they are not reconciled, hoping to exchange this resource for some rewards, everyone knows it, and the two sides are also interdependent, and no one will rush to kill them all.

Speculators never thought that their actions were wrong, and their theory was that if the grain channels in Shanghai remained open, it would be very difficult to hoard them, and that there was not enough local rice, so they could buy foreign rice from other countries.

The main factor is the war first, it is the war that brings the soil for the survival of this kind of speculators, and the problem of food shortage is the result of changes in the general environment, and their speculative factor can only be second.

"Of course, for the outstanding contributions you have made to Shanghai, the city government and the Japanese side will have special treatment, the source of food in Shanghai is the three provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui, and when the matter is over, you can call the gendarmerie and the police station to make up for the amount of food this time."

"By that time, the new grain in the three provinces will be on the market, and the price will definitely be much higher than now, and you actually won't have much to lose." In the face of this shameless statement, Chen Mingxiang didn't bother to talk to them, he had his own plans.